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Batswein

Author: CPL

Editorial Status: unknown

Discussion of the name

The name is Scandinavian in origin (ON Bátsveinn), the common occupational term bátsveinn, meaning ‘boatman’. It was in use as a byname in Sweden and as the name of Vikingbatswein (genitive Wycinges batswegenes), who witnessed a manumission at Topsham (Devon) c. 1045 (von Feilizten 1937: 193; Tengvik 1938: 238; Pelteret 1990: no. 138). The form of the latter’s name shows that the word had already passed into late Old English as bātswegen. As an independent personal name it is not recorded in PASE other than as the name of a TRE landowner, but was evidently sufficiently in use to give rise to the surname Boatswain (Reaney 1997: 51).